


Before

by goldenzingy46, Trixie (goldenzingy46)



Series: Marauders Era [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 1960s, Abusive Parents, Before Hogwarts, Bisexual Remus Lupin, Bisexual Sirius Black, Black Family Drama (Harry Potter), Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Family Drama, Fluff, Gen, Good Lily Potter, Good Peter Pettigrew, Good Petunia Dursley, Homoromantic Sirius Black, James Potter is a Good Friend, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape Friendship, Lily Evans Potter is a Good Friend, Marauders era, Nice Peter Pettigrew, Nice Petunia, Pre-Hogwarts, Rich James Potter, Rich Sirius Black, Welsh Remus Lupin, irregular updates, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23228848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenzingy46/pseuds/goldenzingy46, https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenzingy46/pseuds/Trixie
Summary: The first in my Marauder's Era series. A glimpse into the lives of our protagonists before Hogwarts.
Series: Marauders Era [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670146
Comments: 63
Kudos: 28





	1. Remus Lupin, Age 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe I shouldn't have opened my fic with the werewolf attack... oh well.
> 
> This chapter is exactly 666 words lol

The Lupin cottage was an exceptionally fine place to be, a cosy place with whitewashed walls and flowery curtains, plump sofas with bright coloured cushions and many wood tables covered in books and house plants, well-lit and humming with happiness. From the kitchen you could smell the wonderful scent of Hope Lupin cooking, usually accompanied by humming, whistling, or singing. Upstairs, little five-year-old Remus Lupin slept, surrounded by love and happiness.

Three people lived in this house, two of whom we’ve already met: Hope Lupin, Lyall Lupin, and Remus Lupin.

And oh! Speak of the devil! The door of the Lupin cottage was flung open, and a man sailed in, calling out to his wife.

“Hope, darling, I passed a new law on werewolves.”

Lyall Lupin was a proud man who worked in the ministry, and he couldn’t be happy than when making sure society was safe.

“You see, they now have to have registration numbers tattooed onto their wrists, and they can’t have a wand. They have to turn up at the ministry every full moon and be put into a holding cell to protect people. Make sure it’s safe. Safe for my little man.” Lyall said, swaggering into the kitchen.

“That’s nice, dearie. Why don’t you go and check on Remus?” Hope replied, knowing that he wouldn’t stop making these laws until all werewolves were removed from society altogether.

Lyall was on cloud nine as he strolled up the stairs, intending to check on his five-year-old son then get to work writing his next law, banning werewolves from having jobs and sending them to live with a human family or remain in the ministry full time. He slipped open the door to find Remus shaking in the middle of the bed, looking terrified.

He walked over to him and sat down beside him. “What’s wrong, son?” Lyall asked, stroking Remus’ hair.

“Papa, I think there’s a monster under the bed.” He replied, sniffling.

“Don’t worry, Remus, no monsters would visit you tonight. And if they do, think happy thoughts and they’ll go away.” He hugged his son tight, proud of how he was protecting him from creatures of evil.

“Thank you, papa,” Remus whispered, wiping his face with his hand, and curling up to go back to sleep.

Less than half an hour later there was a scream, and a howl. Hope Lupin, a woman of middling age, ran up the stairs, frying pan in hand, slamming open the door to her precious son’s room and almost froze at the sight in front of her. Fenrir Greyback stood, wolf form’s eyes glinting, her son in his mouth, bleeding, dripping with blood, crying, screaming.

She let out a battle cry and lunged at him with her frying pan, dodging the claws and smacking Fenrir Greyback with the pan repeatedly, watching his head slam up against the wall, only satisfied when she saw the trickle of blood, but smacked him again anyway so she could pry Remus from his maw and keep him safe. _How dare he harm her son!_

The werewolf was still coming closer and closer, which was when Lyall came rushing in, just as she gave Remus a hug, kissed him on the nose and promised him it would be alright, even with Greyback looming above them both, because her husband was letting off a volley of spells to hold him back and drive him away.   
  
“Reducto!” Lyall screamed, adrenaline coursing through his body, the scarlet spell leaving an enormous scorch mark on his fur and burnt through the flesh, the sickening scent causing Remus to cry more and nearly throw up, and the wolf to leap out the window, smashing the glass as he fled, leaving a pool of crimson in his wake.

“Remus?” Lyall whispered, cleaning the blood and werewolf saliva from his son’s throat.

A huge bite mark scarred it, red and raw.

Lyall looked at Hope, eyes burning. “We’ll keep him safe. But no one must know. No one.”


	2. Sirius Black, aged 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revamping the last chapter, guys, so keep an eye out for that :D

Sirius Black was sitting in the parlour on a ridiculously expensive chair, feet swinging as he grumbled about his mother cutting his hair. He, apparently, wasn’t respectable-looking enough for the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, which was silly, in his opinion, because Sirius Orion Black was a seven-year-old. Which, of course, meant he was incredibly grown up, but not old and grumpy enough to have to look a certain way for family dinners.

Family dinners! He’d get to see Cousin Andy, who was brilliant. Last time, she brought dungbombs and they let them off at the dinner table, which had been hilarious. His mother had dropped out of her perfect posture and shrieked like a banshee, beautiful hair slipping off her head in cascades, stumbling in her heels and ripping the hem of her gown. It had been hilarious, and, though he had been caught, it had been a riot of an evening he’d never forgot (no, not just because he’d had champagne for the first time! Besides, that was Bellatrix’s fault).

“Alright, Sirius, I think you look gentlemanly now.” Walburga smiled, kissing him on the forehead. “No antics like last year and you’ll be fine. At least with Andromeda, Cygnus can marry her off. You’re our heir apparent.”

“Yes mother,” Sirius groaned, slipping off the chair, looking for an escape from his overbearing mum.

She ruffled his hair, smiling. “Love you, Sirius.”

“Love you too, mum.”

He ran upstairs to get ready, already hearing the guests come in.

“Walburga! Stunning as always, I see,” was his Auntie Druella.

“Druella, my friend!” which was probably followed up with a hug, kissing on the cheeks and smiling between the two women whom he’d once seen comparing makeup techniques, because the House of Black could never be anything but perfect.

Toujours Pur indeed.

“Reggie! Reggie, come on!” he yelled, dragging his younger brother, Regulus, down the stairs.

Oh, _ewwwww_.

His father, Orion Black, and his Auntie Druella were deeply in love but married to someone else. Which meant hidden romantic scenes and snogging when nobody was looking, but it was _gross_.

“Ori,” she whispered, staring deep into his eyes, their hands clutched tightly together.

“Dru,” his father responded, their noses mere inches apart.

“I love you,” Auntie Druella murmured, not giving him time to respond before clutching his face and kissing him like a starving woman, white gloves rumpling on his jawline, lipstick smearing onto his face.

“Ew, _ewwww_ , Reggie don’t look!” Sirius hissed, covering his brother’s eyes, turning away from the sight of his father snogging his aunt.

“I love you too,” he heard his father say, breathlessly, after the kiss.

Regulus shoved Sirius’ hands off his eyes and dragged him downstairs, straight past their father and their aunt, who didn’t even notice them come through.

“My sons! Where _were_ you?” cried Walburga, impeccably dressed as always.

“I’m sure they just got a little… _caught up_ in something,” their Great-Aunt Cassiopeia interrupted, showing her teeth. She knew about the affair between Orion and Druella, but of course she didn’t tell anyone, because she was Cassiopeia Black and she loved chaos.

Grandfather Pollux and Grandmother Irma lurked in the back corner, and Sirius instinctively moved away from them, as both of them were creepy and despised children. Lightly tugging Reggie’s hand, Sirius began to reverse away from their leering grandparents, only to crash backwards into an elderly couple.

“Grandpa Arcturus! Grandma Mel!” Reggie cried, getting smothered in hugs and forehead kisses from Melania.

“How’s my little man these days, huh?” For all she seemed nice, the Black family could team up and be deadly, especially the woman.

“Sirius! Heir apparent! I guess you’re ready for when I finally die so your father can take over, huh?” Arcturus said, shaking Sirius’ hand firmly, his seven-year-old self almost bouncing up and down at the force.

“I- uh… oh look, Reg, there’s Uncle Alphard!” he stuttered, pulling his brother away from their grandma, Arcturus frowning with displeasure as they ran away.

“Sirius!” their Uncle Alphard cried, seeing them come in his direction. “How’s my favourite nephew, then, huh?”

Sirius found his hand sliding out of Reggie’s, and suddenly he was up in the air, too high, way too high, and everything was spinning.

“Uncle- I- urgh,” Sirius spluttered, unable to voice his discomfort. “My brother’s here too!”

He found himself on the ground again, sinking to the floor dizzily.

“Little Regulus! I didn’t see you there!” Alphard said, pinching his cheeks and ruffling his hair. “How’s my lil’ kiddo?”

“Why is everyone calling me little? I am a big boy now! I’m _six_!” Regulus pouted, looking adorable with big brown eyes and ruffled hair.

“Of course, but you will always be my little kiddo!” Their uncle boomed, sweeping the pair of them into a hug, of which they barely came past his knee. He crouched so he could be at their level, his slightly greasy shoulder length hair swinging in front of their faces. Regulus wrinkled his nose and batted it like a small kitten, to which Alphard let out a hearty laugh and opened his battered leather satchel.   
  
“Don’t tell anyone, but I got you each a little gift from my travels,” he whispered, handing Regulus a little ship in a bottle, and Sirius a set of expensive-looking bangles.

“Brother!” Walburga sniffed, elegantly looking down her nose at him, black lace gown sweeping the floor as she marched up beside him. “I haven’t seen you in ages. Come and catch up with us.”

Alphard stood up, dusting off his battered suit, and nodded. On his way to join the women, he winked and Sirius, and murmured, “Give ‘em hell for me, kid.”

With Uncle Alfie gone, the Black brothers looked for another distraction. Without a distraction in sight, however, the middle daughter of Cygnus and Druella Black was stalking through the room, pale skin almost glowing, thick, sleek, black hair swirling loose down her back, a rare luxury for a ten-year-old in the Black family, dark eyes searching the room for prey.

“My favourite cousins! What fun!” Bellatrix yelled, flitting through the room towards them.

“Trix!” Sirius giggled, knowing she hated that nickname.

Bellatrix frowned, and then smiled that nasty smile that ten-year-olds with a cruel streak do, and it was not a nice smile. It was the kind of smile that made Sirius hug his younger brother instinctively, and step in front of him, creating a kind of human shield.

“Kreacher!” she snapped, calling the wrinkled old house elf to her side. “Get us something… _fun_ … to play with.”

Kreacher’s yellowing teeth flashed as he obeyed. “Kreacher bes doing what Young Mistress Black’s wanting.”

She giggled, patting Sirius’ shoulder with a cold hand, to which he recoiled. “It isn’t always I get to play with my little cousins, is it now, Reggie?”

Her eyes flickered to the younger of the two, who was partially hidden behind Sirius, and she had a mask of malice disguising her pretty features. Kreacher popped back in, offering her a dark orb, white streaks of lightning crashing within, and she pulled on her black gloves, straightening the hem by the crook of her elbow, and held the orb out to Sirius.

“Little cousin! Would you like to have a taste of our family’s little treasures?” she hissed, eyes wild and nearly glowing with the power she had over them.

Sirius pulled Reggie back, he had no idea what it was, but it felt ugly, and it radiated an aura of coldness.

“Now, now, don’t be like that! It’s all in good fun! Here, little Reg, you try it!” Bellatrix grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into a tight, one-armed embrace.

“Reggie, no! It feels icky, don’t touch it!” fear clogged his throat as he watched his little brother encircled in the arms of his crazy cousin.

“Come now, just a little brush, that’s all it takes,” Bellatrix coaxed Regulus.

“B-but it feels kinda gross,” Reggie stammered, his hand half out, eyes wide and panicked. “Siri?”

“Reggie, don’t listen to her, don’t touch it! It’s evil!” Sirius cried, watching him but unable to help.

“Don’t be silly, Cousin Sirius, how can an object be evil?” Bellatrix murmured, gloved hand caressing the orb.

“Now, now, Bella,” a soft voice crooned. “Stop toying with our baby cousins, it’s very rude.” Narcissa Black straightened up, dress smooth without a single wrinkle.

“I-I’m not a baby!” Reg complained, defiantly.

“Yes, of course not. Bella, let us go somewhere else.”

“But Cissy…” Bellatrix whined.

“Bella,” Narcissa warned, hands clenching together in a very ladylike manner.

With a dramatic sigh and a grand flourish, Bellatrix relinquished her hold on Regulus, pouting as she swept after her younger sister.

Sirius gently embraced his younger brother, letting Reg cry onto his sleeve. “I’ll always be here for you, Reg,” he whispered. “Always.”

Tears burned his eyes as he hugged Reggie fiercely, never letting go. He would protect his younger brother. Forever and always. Always and forever.

“Hey, little cuz!” Andy called, vaulting over the table to join them. “What’s wrong?”

Sirius glanced up, and muttered, “Bellatrix.”

“Ah, damn. However, I have an idea for a prank…”

Even Regulus looked up at that. Sirius grinned, the mischievous grin that only a seven-year-old can wear. “Let’s hear it.”

Andromeda grinned, and Sirius groaned, knowing that look. “Let’s get you two clean, first..."


	3. Severus Snape, aged 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here's this bad quality and sucky chapter. Severus and Eileen are two people who stubbornly do not want to be written, and I hard a hard time with it. It's only a little over a thousand words, but I flatly refuse to spend another three? four? weeks procrastinating over it.
> 
> (I literally drew the entire Black family tree to avoid writing it :/)
> 
> Seriously, though, it's horrible. My sincerest apologies. Hopefully it'll get better from here.

There had once been a family of purebloods that stalked the streets, were wicked with a wand and their rune skills were world renowned. They had rune engraved daggers, too, so even when you thought you’d disarmed them, they could and would fight back with a vengeance.

This family were immensely proud of their family name, but, slowly, generations where they were thirty dwindled to those where they were twenty, then ten, five, three. The parents, and the heir. Then the heir’s mother died a mere week after the heir had left school, leaving Nathaniel, the father, to create a marriage contract for the heir. But the heir did not want to be married off to a stranger, even to save their family name.

This family was the House of Prince.

And Eileen Prince ran away from her father, and the marriage to Cyrus Greengrass, and fell in love with a Muggle boy. He was by no means handsome, in fact, most may call him rather ugly, but he was all Eileen wanted, and so they eloped. Eileen Prince was erased, and in her place stood Eileen Snape.

But there was one slight problem.

Eileen had not told Tobias about magic, even three years after they were married.

And happily married they were, in a cosy little house in Spinners’ End, when Eileen found out she was pregnant, they were overjoyed, except for this one niggling corner of her brain. A little voice which hissed, “What if your son is magical?”

This question plagued Eileen for weeks, months, even. Yet she did nothing, made no attempt to tell Tobias, just waited as her stomach swelled and a little boy grew. That, however, did not stop her thinking about it.

 _What if my son is magical? What will I do?_ Eileen wondered, sometimes barely functioning in the real world.

Yet Eileen never had an answer, and even when her baby boy was born, she said nothing.

And her silence would be what damned them all, in the end.

At four years old, Severus Snape tripped and fell down the stairs, only to float. This was when Eileen explained, and this was when Tobias started drinking, when he hit Severus for the first time. When Tobias Snape transformed from the man she loved to the monster Severus would know. When Severus started being given hand-me-downs and broken noses that never healed properly, when Eileen started teaching him Latin and French, runes and potions, teaching him the difference between herbs and teaching him what they could be used for. She taught him the Victorian language of flowers, and Severus Snape taught himself to use his magic.

He could make things fly, and flowers to bloom. He could repair ripped clothes and some of the smaller cuts, could clean the grime off him when left in a pool of his own blood.

Severus Snape was competent, to say the least. And when he reached Hogwarts, he would throw himself into experimental spells and potions, with the desperate hope that maybe he could cure his mother’s cancer.

For his mother was dying. There were no two ways around it.

What Severus didn’t know was that there was already a cure, but Eileen refused to use magic because, under everything, she still loved Tobias Snape. She loved the man he had once been. And she turned away the letters from Nathaniel Prince as he tried to reach her, vowing never to look back.

Eileen could only hope that, one day, Severus could forgive her.

***

At seven years old, Severus Snape was aged far beyond his years.

He was not handsome, like his father. He was not rich. His clothes were his mother’s best efforts to transform old clothing into something that resembles wearable for him, and he was very quickly shoved into the ‘weirdo freak kid’ category at school. Alone and friendless, he sunk into a corner, burying himself with knowledge and practising his magic, coming home to a house smelling heavily of alcohol and his father swinging at him, scraps of food and an attic room – no, he had not had a happy childhood.

Severus’ only escape was the public gardens and park behind the houses. He would often flee there just to get out of that house and away from the monster, away from the air laden with sadness and out somewhere where he would be free.

That was where he first met a beautiful red-headed girl, a beautiful red-headed girl he would’ve given his life for. The girl who would, eventually, become like a sister to him.

Where he first met Lily Evans.

Severus Snape had climbed into a hollow in a bush where nobody would find him, had curled up there to think, to be alone and undisturbed.

He had still been there when a blonde girl was dragged by a ginger girl with these eyes, beautiful viridian orbs that looked so jubilant, that seemed to hold the secrets to world peace.

Even her voice seemed so innocent.

“Tuney! Tuney! Look what I discovered I can do!”

She was everything Severus was not.

The elder girl, the blonde one, laughed. “Go on then Lils, I’d love to see it!”

‘Lils’ plucked a flower bud from off the bush, holding it up to ‘Tuney’. Nothing happened for a split second, then it quivered, and began to open, layers of petals blossoming in her palms, and then she held up the flower to ‘Tuney’.

“Lils…?” Blue eyes were horrified for a second, and she quietly whispered, “That’s not normal. Most people can’t do that. We need to talk to mummy and daddy. Just- just for now, don’t do it, please.”

Severus couldn’t take any more of this- this _muggle_. “You’re a witch!”

Both girls’ heads snapped round to where he had clambered out of the hollow, ‘Tuney’ stepping in between him and ‘Lils’.

“That’s mean, you know.”

It was only the truth! Who was she to deny her sister’s obvious powers?

“Lily, we ought to go back inside.” A protective arm curled around Lily, and the pair of them hurried away, leaving Severus to watch as ‘Tuney’ comforted Lily.

That was the day Severus Snape decided that he would protect Lily Evans, even if it was the last thing he did.

**Author's Note:**

> You could... poke your head into my [Discord server](https://discord.gg/37bXdGW)? I don't bite (much)!
> 
> Alternately, you could pop into my mess of a Tumblr [here](https://goldenzingy46.tumblr.com/), or my writing Tumblr [here](https://goldenzingy46butwriteblr.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Comments and kudos sustain me :)


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